A Mishmash of Science, Engineering, and Life

2016: looking back

It has been a while since I had a chance to blog. Between classes, work, and life, it’s really hard to keep the promise I made to myself about writing regularly.

Anyway, here’s what had happened between my last post and now.

The Qualifying Exam aka The Ph.D. Lottery:

This was perhaps the biggest achievements for this year. My friends and I took the Ph.D. qualifying exams – a daunting, haunting, four-hour long exam that determines whether you are qualified to pursue a Ph.D. in Purdue.
Most of us, including myself, passed by a respectable margin.

The Soham Saha Library:

The West Lafayette Public Library was having a fundraising sale last month. You could get a bag of books For just three dollars. I always dreamed of having my own library. And thus, the Soham Saha Library was born.
I have never been an ardent reader of non-fiction and thought this would be a good time to start reading them. I ended up buying about thirty non-fiction books, and am currently reading whenever I have free time.
Some of the notable ones among the books:
– The Nobel Duel, by Nicholas Wade – a true story about the rivalry between two Nobel Laureates in Medicine. This is for inspiration.
– The Idea Factory, by Jon Gertner – It’s about the inception of Bell Labs and the brilliant innovations that took place there. It’s an interesting book on the research dynamics of one of the best Labs the world has ever seen.
– Writing Science: How to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded, by Joshua Schimel – for obvious reasons.
If you happen to have an office at the Birck Nanotechnology Center and are walking past Room 1238, drop by and take a look. You might find something you like.

Miscellaneous:

Made some new friends, learned how to kickbox, the usual random things I do.

Oh yeah, also, the Presidential election happened. But that is too much for one post.
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Yeah.